Danelectro DW-1 Dan-O-Wah

Far too complex for the design layout...manual is confusing.....just a lousy design

To be fair, i did find a wah or two that were decent sounding, but honestly, there just isn't enough variation between the 6 presets to be able to call each one unique...the so called distortion is absolutely, hands down the worst sound i've ever heard...the octave feature, if it's really there, doesn't do anything

I tried this peadl on approval, and i do not approve...i fibnally pullled it in the middle of a song when the crap-stortion went on by itself and WOULD NOT TURN OFF!!!

The dude that resurrected danelectro poured lots of money into it, came out with some good stuff, some terrible stuff, and then self-destructed...probably too much partytime...the IS NO customer support...you're on your own

I've been playing for 33 years...i am still a compulsive gear hound, even though i'm trying to reform...ordinarily, i can find a way to use just about anything, and i'm usually fairly generous in my comments...that said, i will say this about this pedal....and i mean this, really and truly...i thank God that i tried it before i paid for it...i literally wouldn't have it if it were given to me

Somewhat complicated, and impossible to use on-the-fly during a show... if you don't have shoes with a narrow point, changing among the wahs and the octave on/off switch is virtually impossible. But at home or in the studio, easy as pie.

It's noiseless when passive, and the wahs are unbelievable. The best, by far, I've ever heard. After trying Dunlop, Morley, VOX, etc. etc. etc., this one has 6 unique sounds. the first 60s and the 3rd 70s are the best, with wide sweeps and presence. The second 60s is very smooth, the second 70s sounds just like the wah-intro to Three's Company...
EXCELLENT sound quality on the wahs, which is what it's meant for.
The distortion is adequate. It's not designed for hardcore great distortion sounds - stay with your Marshall - but it does an alright job. The octave effect is almost useless unless you're trying to find a really different sound for an intro or solo or something. Using the wah with the distortion or distortion+octave = NOT a good idea. Sounds terrible... Just use the wah with your amp's distortion and you'll be fine.

It's plasticky...and I wouldn't throw it around much, no... but if you let it sit in one place, it'll do jusssssst fine.

Wah sounds = fantastic. Distortion = ok. Octavizer = ehhh.

Pretty easy to get a good sound if you keep it simple. I'm basically only using the bottom 60's button, since that sounds best to me.

I've used the Dan-O-Wah with my Epiphone Demon through a Peavy KB-160 amp and a Zoom 505II pedal. Even though the wah pedal has a bunch of other options (distortion and 70's wah sounds)I'm basically just using that one 60's setting, since that is the sound I want. The unit is very quiet and has a good wah sweep, very funky sounding.

Only used it for two gigs so far, but I'm pretty light on my feet (not bad for a guy who weighs 250 pounds), so I expect it to last for a while. Sure, I'd use it without a backup. This is the first wah-wah pedal I've owned since I sold my Foxx wah-volume pedal back in 1977 and I've done OK without one till now.

Sent them an email (see below) but no answer yet.

I play oldies in a 5-piece band and classic rock covers in a trio. The Dan-O-Wah is a fun effect if used sparingly. I've been playing since Woodstock (the first one). If I lost this pedal, I'd probably get another one as long as it was only $30. I really like the cheesy car design. I'm thinking of painting some flames on mine. I dislike the distortion, which is so loud as to be unusable during a gig. I emailed Danelecto to see if there were any kind of mod that could be done to lower the distortion volume, but they haven't answered me yet.
Anybody know of any way to do this?

It's a mixed bag here, big pluses and big minuses. The LED indicators are really handy. The side buttons stink. Pedal sweep is good. Distortion and channel switches at the end ot pedal sweep are a good way to accidentally murder your eardrums. Overall, okay. Lots of stuff crammed into very little space. I think it would have been better to just have two wah sounds rather than six, and use that space for some knobs to control things.

Better than you'd expect! Frankly, the wah sounds are WAY better than the common Crybaby and Morley pedals. No, they don't beat a Teese or Fulltone boutique pedal, but they're nothing to be ashamed of. The 60s and 70s channels give you the two main voices of wah, although the variations in those channels are too subtle to matter. It doesn't load down my signal even when bypassed - say THAT about a Crybaby!

The distortion and octave effects are a separate subject. Here's my take... taken as fuzz rather than distortion, the "distortion" is pretty good, really. It's useful for a number of things. While it seems subjectively much louder than the clean signal, it's not really (so sayeth the peak/clip meters on my Lexicon Vortex downstream, anyway). Distorted sounds seem naturally louder to our ears than clean sounds - that's just physics, and i have the same problem with all my other heavy distortion devices too. Now, it WOULD be nice if Danelectro provided a couple of knobs to actually CONTROL the distortion, so it was subjectively more reasonable. But hey, it works, and it doesn't suck nearly as much as some expensive dedicated pedals i've tried.

The octave effect is not really different from the Octavia that Jimi used... some people seem to expect a harmonizer, but an octave distortion is much more subtle than that. If it isn't working for you, try switching to the neck pickup, rolling off the tone control, and playing only the high strings above the 12th fret. Then you'll get how it works (if your guitar is a single bridge humbucker with no tone control, it sucks to be you). Listen to the lead in "Purple Haze" to hear how it's supposed to sound. So it works fine. Whether or not it's a useful effect for you depends on what you're playing and how willing you are to adapt your picking to the needs of the effect.

Oh, my setup... Gibson Blueshawk, Trace-Elliot Velocette tube amp, a ProCo Rat II for my main heavy distortion, Prescription Electronics Germ for clean buffering and overdrive, and various downstream swirly echoing things. The Danelectro plays well with others.

Haven't owned it long enough to form an opinion, but the cheap plastic housing is questionable. Fine for playing in the basement and the occasional gig. I'd expect professionals to spend more than $30 on a wah pedal!

I play jazzy, psychedelic weirdness. I want everything to sound warm and lively, and it works really well for that. And hell, it was thirty bucks! I use a lot of effects, but i'm VERY picky about them, and they have to meet high standards for sound quality and usefulness. It's not the greatest pedal i own, but hey, it's better than my Crybaby was!

It's not too hard to get a good sound out of this, but it's REALLY easy to get bad sounds. (I'll get to that later.) It has 2 switches on top, 1 under the pedal, and 4 push buttons on each side. You get 3 "60's" wah sounds(full-range), 3 "70's" sounds (trebly), distortion, and an octave-up effect. You can mix and match them to get dozens of sounds (good, bad, and ugly).

Like most wahs I've owned, I had to adjust the pot a little. Out of the box, it was too trebly and noisy in the toe-down position. The wah on/off switch was noisy. So, I opened the bottom, pulled back the notched strip that turns the pot, and turned the pot back a little. Now it sounds MUCH better and quieter. I'm not subtracting any points for this, because I've had to do it on Crybaby and Maestro wahs, too.

I'm subtracting a couple of points for lack of control over the distortion. The lack of a level control really burns me. I'm also knocking off a couple of points for the placement of the push buttons on the sides. It's hard to hit them with your foot.

I'm using this with a Fender Strat and a Lab Series L7 amp. It's not noisy now that I adjusted it (see above).

Like I said above, you can get some nice sounds out of this pedal. The middle 60's setting is good for Hendrix type stuff. The first 70's sound is bright and funky. The distortion is okay- IF you don't plan on switching between clean and dirty sounds. If you do, you'll find that the volume difference makes it unusable. When you kick on the distortion, you're suddenly 5 or 6 times louder.

This brings me to the bad sounds. For some unknown reason, the wah is placed after the distortion in the circuit. Ugh. Also, the octave effect adds way too much high end and thins out the low end. The octave only works when the distortion is on. Combine the distortion and octave with one of the 70's wahs, and presto- instant crap.

I'm only using the wah effects. I've given up on the rest. I put a Tube Works OD after this pedal and it sounds good.

I'm giving it a 5 because it's such a mixed bag.

People complain about Danelectro's plastic pedals. But I've had a couple of their mini effects for two years and they haven't broken yet. The push button switches on this pedal worry me though.

I don't use a wah at gigs, but I use a Dano Tuna Melt all the time at gigs without a backup.

Don't know. Never dealt with them.

I think Danelectro tried to put too many features into this thing, and not enough thought went into sound quality. An output level for the distortion would improve it greatly. So would putting the wah before the distortion.

But for $30, it's a good deal. I'd be upset if I paid more for it.

There's a lot going on here for a wah pedal, but I'd say
that they did a pretty good job of arranging the controls
without resorting to an enlarged footprint for the housing.

I find myself forever confusing the "bank select" and
"distortion" buttons, but that's my fault. Besides,
even guessing, I have a 50/50 shot.

The LED's are a big help in keeping you informed about
which features are running at any given time.

My ancient Foxx Fuzz/Wah/Volume had approximately the same
feature set, but used a rotary knob to change wah settings,
and had side-mounted pots for controlling the distortion.
It was completely impossible to change settings on-the-fly.

The side-mounted in/out switches on the Dano can be
engaged with a careful poke of the toe (at least the
outermost ones can) so I guess the Dano's slightly more
workable. You're better off doing a "set and forget"
between songs, though.

Given the way the "octave" sounds, I'd rather they'd
scrapped it entirely, and used the extra space to spread
out the buttons controlling the wah settings. I
wouldn't encourage anyone to use their feet on these
light-duty switch buttons anyway -- except when it's
absolutely necessary.

Overall, though, a decent layout for a fairly complex pedal,
and a better manual than what you get with most boxes.

Depending on what guitar and amp settings I'm using,
all of the wah's are at least useable. A couple become
very harsh with single-coil pickups. I like the '60's
selections for lead, and the '70's settings for rhythm.
Since the Foxx went to heaven in 1983, I haven't used a
wah until I picked up an inexpensive Morley (pretty good)
and a Carvin (avoid that dog -- see my review.) I'm not
an expert, and I use effects sparingly, but for a $29
impulse item, I have to say that the Dano sounds pretty
good.

On the other hand:

The distortion is of limited usefulness. It reminds me
of a re-issue Fuzz Face (which is not a good thing from
where I stand.) No dynamics, ultra-cruddy, one size
fits all. I choose to ignore it. I suspect that some
will use it occasionally, but I can't imagine anyone using
it as their main fuzz. It's not hurting anyone to have
it available, though. For a kid on a budget, it's a
nice extra.

But: Add the "octave" and you will be summoning dogs.
I'd say that with the octave engaged, this fuzz sounds
like the Dano Grilled Cheese Distortion -- unbearably
harsh, and unmusical. Like a Fender Twin on full treble,
with the bright switch engaged, and a fuzz with the
distortion all the way up, gain almost all the way
down. Thin, brittle, ugly. Again, though, it's easy enough
to just leave it off.

The side switches are typically dano-crappy. It's
a good thing that they're hard to engage with the
feet, 'coz they're not built to last. Use your fingers
to push them in, then keep your fingers crossed that they
don't fail. Hopefully, it'll be the Octave switches
which crap out first, in the OFF position, so they don't
engage by accident.

More problematic is the fact that the (what is it called,
a treadle?) -- anyway, the part of the wah that rocks up
and down to create the "wah" frequency sweep -- rocks
slightly side-to-side as well, which it ain't supposed
to do. This $29 Guitar Center blowout may be from a batch
of second-quality units, but if they all do this, then I'd
say that basic build quality may be questionable. We'll
see down the road.

The rest of the unit seems to be built decently enough
for a budget item.

I'm guessing that a couple of the switches will end
up breaking, but that the basic unit will remain sound.
I'll pass on an actual rating, since I don't use the
pedal very demandingly.

No idea.

Not bad. I might be more critical if I'd paid the standard
$79 or however much, but it's a downright steal at $29.
Instant, versatile wah fun, for however long it lasts. A
lot cheaper that a Dunlop 535, and I'm leery of Dunlop
in general anyway after a couple of bad experiences. Dano
stuff is cheap and fun; I don't get attached to
any of it. Besides, cheap and flimsy as it all looks, I
can't honestly say I've had a problem with any Dano
product. I like my Dan-O-Wah.

Easy to used I guess but some of the buttons don't really seem to change the sound that much.

Pretty Noisy. The Distortion is pretty nasty. Most importantly there is no bypass switch like there is on a cry-baby, which makes it kinda worthless to use in an amp setup where you only use it for a few songs.

It seems ok but thats not part of my issue with it.

Not Sure. Just bought it. I might take it back to the store if I poses a problem with my live amp setup.

My main concern is the issue with it having no bypass switch. I'm not sure I care for the over all sweep, with there being a dead spot towards the middle of the footpedal.

Its pretty easy peadl to get to grips with.. You dont have to be a rocket sientist...

The clean sounds are great!! But as soon a you kick in the distortion!!!! All hell break lose.. its a shocking loud distortion with no way to control it... It would not be so bad if there was a knob.. The distortion is NASTY!

Its made of plastic.. but seem sterdy enough....

I would gig with it..

Hav enot had to use

To be honest i dont like this pedal.. i wish i keep't saving enough to get a cry baby.. but oh well..

TRY IT BEFORE YOU BUY IT!!

Pretty easy to use. No problems. Can't edit patches. Manual? Do you need a manual? Read the labels on the switches/jacks and it's done quite logically, nothing unusual, I think. I don't give it a 10 because it needs a volume/gain control for when you kick in the distortion, which is mega dirty and loud. This is it's major drawback, but most wahs don't come with distortion, so I still rated it a nine because it's an innovative wah.

Setup I'm using with the Dan-O-wah: I have about 15 electric, acoustic/electric, classical/electric guitars, all Korean at this point -- to me, there's nothing magic about USA labor, all you Rocky holdovers. I get good sound with piezo pickup or single coil or hum pickups through the Dan-O-wah.

{Now, please skip down a few paragraphs if you don't want to hear a tirade about how much I think that the big name USA guitar distributors are price gouging poor musicians at this time...and here is especially a word to the USA labor Nazis, from someone born in the USA. Korea currently makes some great, playable guitars that are superior in craftsmanship, in some cases, to USA-made guitars, if you will please, try to put away the USA legends for a while, at least long enough to compare the neck joints and binding inlays, fret work, etc. between comparably-featured Korean and USA guitars.
I've owned a lot of guitars in 25 years of playing and I am a tiny dealer who now even imports Korean guitars. I compare them with USA guitars often. In fact, I call the Korean luthiers directly at probably the same factory as Ibanez and Epiphone or at least with the same national components, but I specify beautiful, deluxe stuff, and still sell them for less than $500. For instance, I specify nicer frets, tuning keys, etc., gold hardware, quilting, etc. The big USA distributors could specify deluxe features and give you awesome guitars with just a phone call, for $500 or less, but they won't, at least, not yet. Maybe when they lose still more market share...trying to sell expensive instruments to poor musicians for short term profit margins, while the Koreans, who already have the world's largest guitar factory (Samick), continue to encroach...not a wise market strategy, unless you only want to sell to collectors who make their money not playing music; and you'll only do it for a generation more or so, until the word gets out that the mystique is fluff and bygone legend; and the schmooze factor of buying prestige namebrands instead of objectively looking at the product.
Moreover, the deceitful thing is, allegedly USA-made guitars have lots of Korean components put in them, and some USA workers put some USA man hours into them, just enough so they can call them USA or made in USA by legal loophole. Call Fender or Gibson some time and ask them. If you get an honest phone consultant, he or she may tell you, at risk to the job. The big execs definitely don't want the complete truth to be known. Trade secrets at our expense, or more accurately, trade deceits at our expense.

Anyway, my money doesn't care where some parents delivered their baby. In a world market, you also help Americans when they get a lot of bang for their buck. Importers create American jobs, too, it's true. And with the money I save, not buying substandard, overpriced guitars, or effects, or whatever, I can help or even start my own USA company (ies) that beat(s )the world in other areas. Who knows, maybe even a new USA guitar maker will rise from the lethargy of ashes, and make a great guitar for cheaper than the Koreans. Wisdom is what makes a country great, not unbalanced loyalty, in my opinion, but there is a balance. I don't want to kick USA manufacturers when they are down...look at Chrysler, for example. They're back because of some timely mercy in the 1980s, and longterm, innovative wisdom. I also don't say to trade dollars for nukes, as in say, for example, I wouldn't recommend buying from Afghanistan right now, and I avoid buying from China as much as reasonably possible for that very nuclear reason; ditto North Viet Nam/North Korea. But South Korea is a friendly democracy with an exemplary culture in many ways.

Anyway, for all the blind American loyalists, probably me too in some unintentioanl areas, I promise you that the USA has its state department and foreign policy agendas that are less than 100 percent "for the good of the people," bu

It's fine. Yes, I would use it without a backup. I give it a 9 just because it's not studio quiet, like every other wah I've ever played.

I've dealt with them several times in trying to find some very recently discontinued Dan Electro guitars, and they were poor on several occasions, at helping me find a retailer that still had some new old stock. I've also talked to them about making some nice quality stuff. They seemed horribly ivory-tower and had a seeming business philosophy that was unaffected by the workaday musician...with the exception of Rock Klauser, who was personable, and helpful, and helped me to find a Guitar/Mandolin, for which I had searched for about two to three years, calling every where, including Dan Electro over a span of about two years, several times. Rock was professional and conscientious, in my estimate. Other Dan Electro management personnel seemed to be unable to care less. I also had the same experience when trying to locate a different color pickguard for my Mod 7. High rolling condescension was all I seemed to get, at least in my experience. I give a 10 to Mr. Klauser and a 1 to everyone else, so a 2 overall.

Style mentioned above,lots of diversity is required to do it. I've been playing studio and live about 25 years. Other gear is mentioned above when I talk about the setup I use in-line with the Dan-O-wah. Yeah, a wah, and particularly this wah, is good for almost any kind of music, except Vivaldi or muzak or something, maybe, but who knows...Bach-wah? I would maybe get another one, but maybe not, only because the general market keeps making better and better electric/electronic toys for less and less, with more and more features. I love the versatility of this wah, and if I didn't get another one, it would certainly NOT be because of ANYTHING that I regretted about buying this wah. I am glad to have bought this and think that the value is superb. I love the automobile design, cool cruiser style. I love the little red lights that light up. I love the range of tone from the pedal and the immense psychadelic and harmonic textures. I hate the lack of gain/volume for when you switch to the drive channel, but this can be overcome by setting a digital patch to compensate...we should not have to do that. They should build a gain/volume into the pedal. In general, though, it definitely very much helps me to make music. Anything else to share? Yeah, get one. I don't know why the other reviewers had problems. The thing won an editor's pick award in 2000, I think, from Guitar Player magaizine. They don't give those away. This is a superior product compared to the other wahs that were out only two years ago. Of course, with the lightning speed of the electronics age, it may be soon superceded, but I think that it's one of Danelectro's really decent effects pedals, and I can't say that about some of them.

Can it be hard to use any pedal?

I have a Fender guitar & a shitty amp, but I usually play direct to my mixer. When I use dan-o-wah, I run my signal trough compressor distortion & multiFX units and then the dan o wah's distortion isn't that bad. It just ads fuzz & some warmth to the sound.

Wah sounds are pretty good. Wouldn't say it's the best wah sound on earth but it's good enough and you can alter it a bit. AND the distortion is not supposed to be "normal" distortion, it's just an extra "special" effect just like the octaver included.

Yes I can depend on it.

Don't know.

I've playd guitar for about 10 years & keyboards about 15. I play mainly keyboards, but now and then guitar too. Rock, pop, 70's funk, jazzy stuff, electronica. Overall good wah pedal & looks great.

The diagram is screwed up, even though the pedal is easy to figure out. People who try to use this as if it were a morley or dunlop screwed themselvesd out of keeping a very good pedal.

Be careful not to kick in the distortion while using the wah unless you mean to , otherwise one would think it was a crappy pedal. The wah sounds are incredible once I got used to the treadle and settings choices. One guy put it perfectly from shaft to porn music to voodoo child. The only complaint is the octaver which if I can get to it will hot rod on my own. It's very faint. Its a very quiet pedal for switching. I would say for bassist it is one great pedal. I can see why guitar players might hate it if they are not very experienced. My guitar player now uses his VOX as backup only. The one setting uses for him is great for the Steve Vai tribute stuff. The distortion is great for bass annoying for guitar. I can also get a great psuedo talk box tone out of it.

I've never had a problem with Danoelectro gear and use it live 20 times a month in everything from grind core to country and jazz. Never needed to worry . My morley has let me down several time and is now just a volume pedal.

never had to use them

I've been playing everything from country to jazz to classical and death metal for almost 15 years. It is a good match for damn near every style I play. I use this through a hughes and kettner bass rig, swr henry 8x8 cabinet, digitech 2101, coolcat,morley volume-distortion-wah,zoom bass multieffects unit,fabtone,shiftdaddy,and bbe msonic maximizer. my guitars are 2 musicman 5's one strung to high c the other to low b, a status empathy 4 string, a hohner 6 string b bass strung to high F and a hodad bass 4. I would hunt the rat bastard down, disembowel him and screw his pooch if some one stole the dan o wah!the octave feature definitely is the weakest thing about the pedal, otherwise it would be a 10. I give it a 9 for value, price and usefulness. The people that hated it probably spent less than a day with this or are inexperienced with wah pedals

Incomprehensable thats all Ive got to say. They have this giant manual that makes no scence

Ahhhh it sounds like poohhpooh. The wah is lame, has a horrible sweep that distorts on at the toe when it's clean. And the distortion sound kinda like fingers being scratched on a blackboard, it squeals like a pig in a slaghter house. I tryed it out on my freinds guitar and amp befor I brought it home. We torned down the volume to 1 on his amp, turned off the volume on his guitat and it still fed back.

Its in a plastic chassis. How reliable do you think it will be? I did''nt wait to find out. I took it back within a day of buying

Well I never neaded to use this but I was pleased to find out that the Guitar shop I bought it from exchanged it for it's full value. THats good customer service

I guess in genral you get what you pay for. Canadian money is like make beilive money so I shouldent expect much for 115. Still It is not worth that. I would pay money to get rid of it. The only good thing about it is it's cool car shaped chassis ((made out of plastic). Some dano stuff like there mini pedles are kinda funky and genaraly sound half decent for a novelty, but this was a big dissapointment. Don't lett it's cutness fool you, it sounds like a car crashing into garbage cans.

let's see, 8 of those little buttons on the side and two on top plus the actual wah control, abit over the top. you'd have to be a bloody tap dancer to use this pedal, and the diagram on the back was pretty confusing being the wrong way round....and the suggested settings were ridiculous they merely told you what you already knew by pressing the buttons.

well i have a rubbish guitar, squier strat and a fender frontman reverb 15 watt ss amp, with the distortion on this pedal makes the most hideous noise ever, the hiss is unbearable at any volume, the wahs are too fake sounding, they don't give any depth nor any realism too the sound. but by far the worst thing about this pedal is the fact that with the distortion on and the wah open it picks up radio stations, sure this may be great at times when your bored and want to listen to something but when your playing it does tend to get a little, wait no VERY annoying.

im not sure about this, ive had this only for a week and nothings gone wrong with it (except the fact its utter rubbish), but the main body of the pedal is metal however the part on which you place your foot is plastic so it's life may be limited especially when under heavy use

don't know, all i know is the company warranty isn't valid in the uk

hmm lets put this simply, this pedal utterly pathetic in fact after using it for about one week im going tomorrow to the shop and returning it possibly to buy a crybaby for less money, whatever you do please please do not buy this pedal, and if you already have it i pray for you.
IT'S UTTER RUBBISH

Very easy. if you cant work out 10 buttons + a pedal than u r thick.
The manual was just what setting it sugests for different sounds.

I use a vintage sg h/h with a Marshal g50rcd. The distortion is terrible. i just use the distortion on my amp. The effects are not too great + i wish i had tried a few other wahs out because i got this as a present.
Im not that into songs with CrAzY effects, i would rather have good music on a clean channel. This pedal humms even on clean sound. The diferent styles are not that different either.

It has quite a good feel to it. ive had it over half a year + there hasnt been any problems.

N/A

This isnt perfect for the style of music i play. Its easy to use looks good + feels good to play but is let down by the differnt sounds.
It would be good if it had an on/off switcch because i can never be arsed to pull out leads etc.

very easy to use, comes with manual but i never used it cause its simple pedal.

i use a affinity squier strat and a fender 25r amp. all the wahs are great and work well and are not noisy, the distortion thru my 25r amp ( or any other half decent or good amp ) is horrible, its got real good fuzz on the squier amp that came with my guitar but on any other amp its way to loud and fuzzy. i like its wahs tho altho it is no good for bass wah.

seems fairly durable, id gig without a backup cause im too poor to have a backup and i never use wah in songs i write.

ive deal with dano support before and they were great

its great for the types of wah i play ( hendrix type stuff ). ive been playin guitar for about a year but have been involved with music for about 6-7 years. if it were stolen id hunt down the s.o.b. and kill him/her, then id buy a new one, or i might consider a dunlop q-wah that has that extra switch so you can get tons of different tones

Okay, nothing very complicated. I thought the button arrangements are akward tho.

I use several Dano pedals (coolcat, tuner, danecho), so I am not a danelectro basher. I was really disappointed with this pedal. The Wah functions are useable(although why you need six of them is beyond me). The octave function, however, didn't seem to work at all. The distortion was HORRIBLE (WAY TOO much gain/volume). In fact it was so bad, I figured it must be defective, so I sent it back, and they sent me a brand new one. Everything sounded exactly the same. So, in the end, the only useable part of the pedal is the 6 wah functions. But, that's overkill. I dug my Crybaby back out of the closet, and retired the dano-wah, it is going to ebay (although I feel a little guilty about pawning this off on anybody, even though it is basically brand new).

Danelectro generally makes pretty solid stuff (although I have returned a couple of pedals).

TEN plus. Everytime I've had a problem/returned anything to them, they've sent me a new replacement, it doesn't get any better than that!

Blues/Classic (60s/70s)rock. I was pretty much unimpressed with the wah functions, and hated the distortion and WEAK octave function. I wanted to like it, but I don't. If it was stolen, I wouldn't care, and certainly wouldn't buy another one.

Brilliant pedal took me about 2 minutes to set up only problem was the diagram on the back eing the wrong way round. Manual you don't really need.

Out of the 6 different wahs I only use 2, the 1st on each side these give me a full tone on oen side and a cool more trebly wah on the other sounds great. The octave switches seem to do very little. Te distortion on its own is terribel for normal use and lowers the volume but it can be put to interesting use in certain situation. The distortion and wah works well in songs like Ash - Lose Control and can give you the noise at the end of the best song ever written, Feeder - Just A Day..just make sure you use the wah 1 on the right hand side. I can get several Feeder sounds works well for Turn (I made a very cool wah version using this pedal), Just A Day bridge, Nurofen, High, Cement etc. Works well with pretty much anything I play actually. Only real problem is that the louder the amp goes the less you seem to be able to hear the disortion not sure if thats jsut my amp though, probably is.

Actually yes. I orignally thought I wouldn't be able to, but it is actually quite sturdy. I would use without backup.

Havent dealt with

Works brilliantly with all my rock, punk, funk and metal needs. I love everythin abotu this pedal. I tried this and a crybaby in the shop and the dano-wah absolutely beat the cry-baby's ass. Seriously this pedal gets a lot of bad press, this in turn means that people who buy it try to see flaws in it however I've stopeed trying, there aren;t any for my needs. I've had people who heard me play it sed thats cool i want one, then read reviews and sed 'Oh thats shit, it's not even as good as the crybaby.' It might not be for soem people's needs I suppose but I personalyl find the cry-baby incredibly boring and crappy...Try this before you dismiss it. This definately helps me a lot.

Just plug in and play. I was impressed with the lack of extra wires and stuff that you usually get with the novelty-style items. However, the diagram underneath the pedal has the input/output jacks round the wrong way. But that wasnt too bad and easy enough to work out and fix.

I'm using a squier strat and a crate vintage valve amp. It gives off a bit too much static without the octave distortion on. But that isnt too much of a problem. Also, there is a massive increase in volume when you put wah on with distortion. But when all said and done (and the battery is charged) it gives great wah.

A lot of people have said the dan-o-wah isn't as sturdy as a cry-baby but i cant agree with that. The dan-o-wah is sturdy enough and i dont know how people could break them, unless they were actually smashing their guitars on stage and it got in the way...
i wouldnt back it up live...

n/a

ive got to go i have no time to do this one!

I think that this was fairly easy to use...

I have two opinions on this pedal. I give the distortion a 10. It has a great crunch for your metal rythm. But for the wah...tisk,tisk...The sound with the wah was the worst I ever heard. It sounded fine when I got it, but now all I hear is static and an annoying radio. I did buy the zero hum but it didn't take care of the problem. Trust me, try a cry baby, they are built like a tank and they sound great.

Oh by the way... The octive switch doesn't even work. All it does is give you a high pitched, twangy sound. Just awlful

ARE YOU KIDDING!!!!!!??????

I have never dealt with a worse company. I emailed them like last month and I still haven't got a reply yet.

The only thing I bought this pedal for is cause of the distortion and nothing else. This wah wah pedal should have been a distortion pedal instead. What a P.O.S!!!

First, let me begin by pointing out that I am NOT one of Danelectro's universal detractors. Dano may not produce the most robust, stage-worthy equipment in the world, but they do make some fun effects that are reasonably priced. The Dan-O-Wah, unfortunately, has some serious flaws. While it seems like a flexible unit, the multitude of push-buttons (four on each side and two on the top) and lights make this unit anything but simple. No, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure this one out but you won't be making selections on the fly either. More is not always better as the Dan-O-Wah proves. Besides, what's up with the cheesy styling???

If you could live with the multitude of buttons, lights, and the cheese factor, here's where it all falls apart for the Dan-O-Wah. I owned this unit for less than four hours and that was too long. I ran the unit straight into a Marshall valvestate VS65R using a Fender Hot Rodded American Series Fat Strat Texas Special. The two octavers are weak enough not to even merit comment. Of the six wah effects, four are tinny and poorly balanced and two are muddy. Overall, the sound is extremely disappointing ... harsh would be a kind description. The built in distortion effect is completely unusable with a GREAT deal of noise and far, far, far too much gain. I returned the unit for a simple Vox wah pedal and the difference is night and day. Do yourself a favor and pass on this one.

As I stated above, I didn't own this unit long but I can't believe an all-plastic unit with its multitude of buttons would hold up well to regular use. Has a definite "toy" feel.

No experience with Danelectro's support.

I've been around music most of my life but would classify myself as an intermediate player with respect to the guitar. My interests range from Blues and Jazz to Rock and Pop but I can't see anywhere the Dan-O-Wah would fit. If you're in the market for a Wah unit there seem to be several excellent ones out there in the $70 - $100 range ... the Dan-O-Wah is not one of them. If you're still curious I encourage you to sit down in your favorite music store and compare it side by side to some of the older standards (Vox, Dunlop). I think you'll be glad you did.

It takes a while in order to get used to it (where to plug in, which buttons do what, etc) but fortunately, there's the back "tail-lights" which turn on when the input jack has something in it (thus, if you get it backwards, you can instantly know if you're paying attention). The side buttons are easy to bash. Also, sometimes when turning off the wah, I've hit the "distortion" (fuzz, really) as well. It doesn't help anything that the diagram on the back is as shown from the top.

Chain: el Degas strat clone with humbucker bridge -> wah -> Yamaha distortion -> amp
With this setup, sometimes with lots of attack, I get a bit of distortion happening, but I'm not sure of the source.
The pedal itself has six wah sounds, two of which sound nearly identical. The fuzz is really fuzzy, but for some things its better to use that than my distortion. *Never* turn the wah on while using the distortion - at toe position the distortion gain is through the roof. (I wish there were a control for it) The octave is more an octave "shift" thing where it cuts out essentially all the bass, but only when fuzz is used.

It is made out of plastic, so that's a bit scary, but I would gig with it (I've used it at my church before, playing "Heart of the Matter" by Don Henley) but don't be overly rough with it.

Never had to deal with them.

A good wah (6 really) with some rudimentary fuzz/octave shift fuzz added in. Can sound as good as a crybaby or a morley. Good value - 6 for the price of 2. Mostly retro-ish wah sounds, but sounds good patched into my distortion. The distortion on the wah is wired dist-wah, so it has a different sound to it, but there needs to be a volume select as there is only one volume level for the fuzz, no matter what you have on your guitar (read: really really loud).

a no brainer, intuitive controls.

60's sounds are happening, but does not hold a candle to my Teese RMC-PW. The fuzz/octave thing sounds like diarrhea...just dreadful. Also this thing looks ridiculous as well.

I would not even think of taking this on stage...period. The plastic does not inspire confidence. I'm giving it to my nephew.

Dano is a good company, they promptly replaced a defective pedal for me in the past.

Dano, make a professional for adults.This gimmicky stuff does not flush with some people.

this thing is easy to use, after you figure out the diagram on the bottom of the box is backwords. but it really is easy to use

ok if you have any question why i give this a 1, play this wah (which goes for $79) go play a crybaby which is the same price and listen to the difference. horrible horrible sound.

yeah i love it when the whole thing is made out of plastic

seriously screw all the different wah's just get a good wah you like dont try to cover all your angles with buying this. it really is this bad

Using this pedal is quite easy, the only problem with setting it up is from time to time I get the input and output mixed up but thats no big deal. The little buttons on the side get a bit annoying and every time I go to use it I feel as if its going to break. Obviusly the cast iron cry baby dosen't ever feel this way but never the less if you just skim over the manual or look at the diagram on the bottom youll figure it out quite easily. Plus I just cant get over the look and features on it. All and all for a little over $80 its a good deal.

First off I'd like to say that I have only been playing guitar for about a year and a half. So I guess you could say i'm still a beginer. Therefore when I went to look for wah pedals I wasn't looking for studio quality sound, I was just looking for something to play around with with as many features as possible. I love the fuzz box sound but I wish you could control the level of distortion. The octaving is cool but a little bit weak. Like I said i'm just a begginer and right now im using my 15 watt peavey rage 158 with this. One thing I like to do is switch on the built in distortion on my amp then play with the clean wah wah sound. It gives me alot more control that way. It has a good hendrix sound and with the 70's controls you can realy make it sound like 70's porn music, which is kind of fun to play around with.

'

This is mostly for me just a fun pedal to play around with. The other day one of my friends came over and walked in on me in an afro wig and a high color plaid shirt with a leather jacket over one shoulder playing a porno kind of riff.(bow wow woka woka) so thats the kind of things I do with it. My favorite thing definetly about It is its styling I can honestly say I have never seen a pedal that had light up tail lights and looked like a car thats whats cool. I normaly stick to the clasic rock like skynard, AC/DC(It's fun to play Back In Black with wah) , Van Halen that kind of stuff but I play songs from just about every genre. I also own the Zoom 505 II which is prety good. If it got broke or stolen first I'd find the guy that did it and kick his ass then, yeah I'd buy a new one.I dont realy know how good or bad this pedal would be for the advanced player and I realy dont care. Right now in this stage of my guitar playing carreer its suits me pretty well!

Relatively easy. The "instructions" on the back of the pedal are backwards for the jacks. The switches on the side can be kicked and you may end up with the octaver "on" when you don't want it, and I don't.

There are two patches on there that I use on a regular basis. One of them is very much Voodoo Chile with some extra bass. The other one is a middy version of "Shaft"--very clicky but fatter than trebly. The other options may have their applications, but I don't use them. I don't use the distortion, either. It sucks. Too much fuzz, don't even think to turn on the wah with it. The octaver is pretty weak as well.

For the tones that I use, they have great sweep ranges. In mid sweep, they let me really vary my tone and while it's hard to lock in on one setting, I just rock the sucker.

The wah switches are a little sensitive, and the bank and fuzz switches can be turned on a little too easily. It is sturdy, though, and since I run a 9V adaptor, I don't worry about batteries.

Great pedal overall, except for the useless settings. I'd get another one if it were stolen but it won't ever replace a Crybaby.